COVID cases drop off after May surge in Wilton Schools
WILTON — Coronavirus case rates in the school district are down after accumulating the second and third highest one-week transmission totals for the school year in the prior two weeks.
As of Tuesday, 55 students and seven staff members were quarantining after testing positive with another five students self-isolating after being deemed in “close contact.” The high school has the highest population of positive cases with 31.
This is down from the 129 cases reported for the week ending May 20 and the one-week total of 126 cases in the week ending on May 13.
“Looking across the week, our daily new case rates, on average, are about half of what they were a week ago,” Superintendent of Schools Kevin Smith recently told the Board of Education. “We’re still running an average of, you know, 11 or 12 a day, but its not the 30 a day we were seeing a week ago.”
The district remained steadfast in its faith in high vaccination rates during the recent surge in cases, but the superintendent did say that schools had started “recommending” masking at some of the larger afterschool events and gatherings, but that no other mitigation strategies were to be changed.
Smith also pointed to some positive news coming from the county.
“COVID ActNow just moved Fairfield County to the medium-risk level” from the high-risk level, Smith said. “And we’re also, in recent days, seeing a downward trend. So we’re not free of COVID by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re seeing a decline of case numbers.”
The superintendent pointed out that the district will continue to monitor its policies when dealing with large-group events. Middlebrook Middle School’s “Soaring Ahead,” the eighth grade ceremony to celebrate their transition into high school, is the next big event on the calendar, Smith said. It will be held inside the high school fieldhouse. The ceremony was not held last year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Smith said that the schools will be setting up a livestream for families that cannot or are choosing not to attend.
Board of Education member Jennifer Lalor asked if an option for an outdoor ceremony could be reserved, to which Smith said it was something that could be discussed in the leadup to the event.
The Wilton High School Class of 2022 will celebrate its graduation ceremony outside once again at Veterans Memorial Stadium.